Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Why, at a recent meeting in Hong Kong the British Consul General said that no mistake was made in refusing the citizenship applications of solely British ethnic minorities of Indian descent; and which change in Indian citizenship law the British Consul General was referring to in indicating that the Indian law, as applied on 4 February 1997, had changed.

Lord Davies of Oldham: The number of offences against the person recorded by British Transport Police (BTP) each financial year since 1998–99 is given in the table below.
	Information has not been provided for 1997–98 as there was a change in counting rules in April 1998, introduced by the Home Office, which makes any comparison with data prior to that date not meaningful.
	
		
			 Offence Category 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 
			 Violence against the person offences 5,184 5,842 5,856 5,755 7,111 8,096 9,131 
			 Sexual offences 1,185 1,079 1,009 1,020 1,003 1,120 1,202 
			 Robbery offences 2,136 2,372 2,648 3,354 2,240 2,541 2,008 
			 Theft of passenger property offences 18,346 25,323 22,741 23,710 31,151 30,190 27,655 
		
	
	In reading the figures it should be noted that the Home Office introduced a national crime recording standard (NCRS) that all police forces across England and Wales were required to adopt. BTP adopted this standard on 1 April 2002. The impact of the new recording standard saw an increase in recorded crime nationally.

Lord Davies of Oldham: The Government are following the market activity around the ownership of BAA, and will maintain appropriate contact with relevant parties as part of this.

Lord Harris of Haringey: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	On how many occasions in each of the past two years malicious programmes have compromised computer systems in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; and for each such occasion (a) how many machines were affected; (b) how long it took to remove the programmes from the system; and (c) what the impact was on the activities of the department.

Baroness Andrews: In the past two years, from available records, only one computer system at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has been compromised by malicious programmes, such as worms, viruses and so on, on one occasion. On this occasion only one machine was affected. The malicious programmes were removed as soon as practicable, and did not have any impact on the day-to-day running of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's operations. It should be noted that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's computer systems are delivered via a Department for Transport system as a shared service. I refer the noble Lord to the Answer given by my noble friend the Lord Davies of Oldham on 16 February 2006 (Official Report, col. WA 195–6).

Lord McKenzie of Luton: European Council Directive. 69/169/EEC sets a tax and duty free allowance for all travellers bringing goods (excluding wine, spirits, tobacco and perfume) for personal use, including those received as gifts, from outside the EU into the UK.
	When the directive was first agreed in 1969, the allowance was set at €45 (£36). In 1994 it was increased to €175 (£136), and the UK conversion was revalorised from £136 to £145 in 1995 to reflect exchange rate changes. Since then the allowance has not been revised.

Lord Adonis: We have data on the number of schools offering access to extended services from a baseline survey of maintained schools published in September 2005. While a very low proportion of schools are providing childcare from 8 am to 6 pm all year round, 87 per cent. of primary and 95 per cent. of secondary schools provide some form of childcare or activities outside of normal school hours; 69 per cent. of primary and 66 per cent. of secondary schools provide some form of parenting support; and 75 per cent. of primary schools and 97 per cent. of secondary schools provide wider community access to their facilities such as sports, arts and ICT facilities. This is a very strong baseline to build on and we will continue to monitor progress.
	We have committed £840 million to developing extended services, including high quality 8 am to 6 pm all-year-round childcare, study support and before-and-after school clubs so that they are accessible through all our schools by 2010. We have also appointed the national remodelling team to provide support to schools and local authorities in developing extended services. Good progress is being made with over 5,000 schools, thus far, indicating their willingness to work on developing extended services.

Lord Davies of Oldham: Total public expenditure on transport services, across the UK, rose in real terms by 67 per cent. between 1997–98 and 2004–05.
	Local authorities fund the majority of their support for bus services, including those in rural areas, from their revenue support grant allocations from government. Decisions on which services to support—and by how much—are a matter for individual local authorities and no statistics are kept centrally on total support for services that are specifically rural. Over £300 million was spent on bus support by local authorities in England outside London in 2004–05, an increase of 43 per cent. in real terms since 1997.
	Local authority bus expenditure includes that met from rural bus subsidy grant (RBSG) provided to authorities by the department to help maintain and improve rural bus services. RBSG has totalled £340 million since its introduction in 1998. The total allocation for 2005–06 is £53 million, a 41 per cent. increase in real terms compared with 1998–99. In addition, we have since 1998–99 allocated a total of £114 million in Rural Bus Challenge and Kickstart funding for rural areas.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: The Government are following the market activity around the ownership of BAA, and will maintain appropriate contact with relevant parties as part of this.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: Works of art that are traded domestically within the United Kingdom are subject to standard rate of 17.5 per cent. VAT, introduced in 1991. Works of art imported into the United Kingdom from places outside the European Union are taxed an effective reduced rate of 5 per cent, introduced in 1999. Works of art removed to the United Kingdom from other EC member states are, where VAT falls due, taxed at the standard rate of 17.5 per cent.
	There are no proposals to change these rates.

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether the European Court of Justice has decided that VAT of 17.5 per cent. should in future apply to works of art imported from outside the European Union for sale in the United Kingdom; and, if so, what was the legal basis for that decision.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: I believe that the noble Lord's Question refers to a recent judgment by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) involving a dispute between the United Kingdom and the European Commission. The dispute did not concern the rate of VAT payable on works of art imported from outside the European Union into the United Kingdom. The effective rate of VAT on such imports remains 5 per cent. The case concerned the United Kingdom's treatment of fees charged by auctioneers in connection with the sales of those works of art in cases where the goods were held within temporary importation arrangements. The United Kingdom took the view that the fees charged in such cases were also subject to the effective reduced rate of VAT. The European Commission challenged this view.
	The ECJ ruled that auctioneers' fees relating to sales of works of art within the temporary import regime must be taxed at the standard rate of VAT. The ruling applies only to auctioneers' fees, the rate of VAT charged in respect of the goods themselves is unaffected. The legal basis for the ECJ's ruling decision is rather complex, and is detailed in their published decision.

Earl Attlee: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Which organisations they have tasked to enforce or encourage compliance with, the code of practice for the escorting of abnormal loads.